Letters: Filner, Lightner, Seau and more

Filner and the U-T

In response to “Filner tries to make U-T an issue in campaign” (Oct. 15): Though a native San Diegan, I have lived in six other American cities. In addition, I’ve read about the history of the press, especially related to keeping separate the newsroom from the editorial board. Without such separation the news reports lose all credibility.

Letters and commentary policy

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As Craig Gustafson wrote: “The U-T took the unusual step of touting its endorsement of DeMaio in the June primary with two front-page editorials.” The U-T has always been a Republican newspaper; but, in the past, occasionally published op-eds from liberal columnists and others. Since the takeover by Manchester, the editorial page has been decidedly one-sided.

However, in June they crossed the line. Never in my life have I seen editorials supporting one candidate put on the front page. Gustafson’s article compares monies given to the campaign by Manchester and those by unions, but fails to give an estimate of what two front-page editorials would have cost if sold on the open market. As Gustafson wrote: “Newspaper publishers have long tried to steer civic debates in one direction or another.” And that is their right. But when they brazenly put one-sided editorials on the front page, claiming as Gustafson does that “the U-T newsroom is independent from the editorial board,” they have crossed the line. No longer is it clear where the news ends and editorials/one-sided opinion pieces begin. – Joel A. Harrison, San Diego

Bob Filner is a longtime practitioner of Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals,” which call for demonizing anyone who disagrees with you.

All one need do is contrast the number of jobs and taxpaying structures Mr. Manchester created while Mr. Filner was eagerly voting for a huge national debt as a member of Congress.

As revered former City Council member Leon Williams, no conservative himself, once put it: “Public employees deserve to be treated fairly. They do not, however, deserve to own their own city.”

And own it they will if Mr. Filner is elected. – Larry Stirling, San Diego

Frye on Filner

In response to “The race for mayor” (Opinion, Oct. 14): I am a resident of San Diego County, but not of the city of San Diego, so I will not be voting in the San Diego city mayoral election this Fall. However, I am always interested in what goes on in my neighborhood. Therefore, I read with interest the opposing columns this weekend on the San Diego race.

I don’t know how stupid Donna Frye (“A vote for Filner is a vote for principle”) thinks San Diego City residents are, but she certainly demonstrated her own lack of intelligence or her duplicity with this column.

The hotel tax DeMaio supports is a tax on tourists, not the San Diego public that she believes should have voted on this. And it is intended to bring in business which will spread tourist dollars over not just the hotel industry, but every business that caters to tourists. San Diego residents will benefit from this for many years to come

And her claim that Bob Filner’s sewage treatment waiver “saved San Diego taxpayers $3 billion” is a distortion of the truth. As she herself states, Filner’s “legislation allowed San Diego to apply for a waiver so the city didn’t have to immediately upgrade the Point Loma Sewage Treatment Plant.” Note the “immediately.” The city will eventually have to perform the upgrade. No savings there, just a delay which may in fact make the inevitable upgrade more expensive for San Diego city taxpayers. – Chuck Schmitt, Hidden Meadows

Lightner supported

In response to “The case for Ray Ellis: leadership” (Editorial, Oct. 14): There was a glaring omission in your re-endorsement of Ray Ellis for the San Diego City Council’s 1st District seat. Nowhere in your long editorial did you discuss how Ellis would handle and represent the issues and concerns in the district he seeks to serve.

This is perhaps not surprising, inasmuch as Ellis, in debates and public appearances, has shown little knowledge or understanding of details and issues in the 1st District. When questioned about such issues or concerns, he most often avoids specific answers by saying pension reform, already passed, is the answer to everything.

In contrast, incumbent Sherri Lightner, whom you casually dismiss, had 10 years’ experience on a variety of volunteer district boards and organizations before running in 2008. She knows the people, the communities, the local issues and the concerns of 1st District residents and has ably represented them for the past four years. And, she supported Prop. B’s pension reform and helped institute employee health care reform and pension reform on the City Council.

Sherri Lightner is the better choice for residents of the 1st District. Did your editorial board’s new Republican-only myopia cause you to overlook her strong record of public service? – David B. Cooper, La Jolla

Let Seau rest in peace

Maybe it’s just me, but I’m having a hard time trying to understand where the social redeeming value

was in “Song of Sorrow” (Part 1) about Junior Seau’s life (SD In Depth, Oct. 14).

His son eloquently said “ I hope this story impresses upon people the need for suicide prevention”. That in itself is most admirable, but was it necessary for the writer to attempt to make that point by portraying him, to his family, friends and the fans who loved and revered him, as an alcohol, drug addicted, divorced and financially distressed/bankrupt womanizer.

It appears the man had problems, but even in death, it seems he cannot be allowed to rest in peace. He and his family deserve better. – Jim DeMocko, Santee

Teacher evaluations

14): I was quite amused at the article addressing teacher evaluations. I taught high school for 42 years, and I never considered administrative evaluations worth a tinker’s damn, mine or any other teacher’s. Truth of the matter as mentioned in the article: Scheduled visits by administrators are a complete farce in that they allow the laggard teacher time to remove the dust from the covers of long-neglected lesson plan and put on a good show for a counselor or vice-principal; once the visitation was over, shoving them – the lesson plans, not the administrator – back into a file cabinet never to be used until the next scheduled evaluation.

So where do we get a true evaluation of a teacher’s effectiveness? Ask the teacher’s students! One thing I learned about teens: they are honest and if a teacher is failing to really educate them, instead of having them look smart and pay attention during evaluations, they will quickly tell you so. On the other hand, the instructor who actually teaches, preparing the students for a world outside the text will be praised, and in many instances loved! – John J. Bowman, La Mesa

Wow! It’s obvious the teachers in San Diego County are not rated using forced ranking; where 10 to 20 percent will be in the highest levels, 70 to 80 percent in middle levels and the rest at the lowest level.

The appraisal system appears broken. We need a new standard – maybe they could get feedback from students and colleagues as well as student scores and performance. – Clarice Cutino, San Diego

Putting a face on ALS

I want to thank Fred Dickey for his article on John Constans and his struggle with ALS (“ALS patient and his family deal with their awful reality,” Local, Oct. 15). Putting a face to this horrible disease gives your readers a clearer picture of its impact on families.

My husband, Alvis Davis, was diagnosed with ALS on April 24, 2011. He is now on hospice and probably doesn’t have much more time but we have made our arrangements and just trying to take it one day at a time. One of the things that I loved about my husband was his deep voice and his laugh. ALS has taken them both away. In the midst of this, I must give kudos to our incredible hospice team from Kaiser and his neurologist at Kaiser. They have been straightforward in their information and approach, return calls and emails quickly and have just been a great support to us.

While I disagree with so much of what appears in your newspaper, its was both sad and uplifting to read this article from Mr. Dickey. – Deborah Fitch, Spring Valley

Cards a nice gesture

In response to “Cutting the cards” (Business, Oct. 15): If the greeting cards go, I’ll be one [ticked off] old lady!

Sending a greeting card to someone with a birthday, an anniversary, a new baby, a family bereavement, a graduation or other milestone was once thought of as a gesture of personal thoughtfulness. It involved taking time to think of that person, spending time with rows of greeting card designs, looking up an address, sitting down with a pen and a stamp and expressing a fond thought or a humorous quote in one’s own unique handwriting.

It’s been with sighs of regret that I’ve watched the disappearance of those “quaint” traditions that used to be the older woman’s domain: the tea room at the department store; the section of “sensible shoes” at the shoe store; the dainty felt hats with veils that were perched atop a slender wooden stand like some fantasy insects.

I’ve sent several electronic greetings already this month and I appreciate their amazing designs and lickety-split delivery. But they’ll have to chain me to the rack of Pandora cards with a pen and a roll of stamps in my hand if those darling folded mementos of civilization go into the dustbin, too! – Regina Morin, Ocean Beach

U-T ballot recommendations

So, are we to believe the U-T San Diego would actually endorse a candidate if he or she were anti-union and pro-business?

Yeah, sure! I checked the paper’s recent election guide. Of those running for elected office whose websites showed a political preference, all but one were Republicans. Olga Diaz running for city council in Escondido has the distinction of being the token Democrat earning a plug. – Keith Taylor, Chula Vista

As I always look to the U-T for Ballot Recommendations, I was confused by your endorsement of Graham Ledger to the San Dieguito Union High School Board. Nowhere in my election materials, including the Voters’ Guide and my Sample Ballot materials, have I found a candidate’s statement, written by him, outlining his qualification.

Proposition 30

I sincerely hope that every citizen of California is aware of what Jerry Brown, the Sacramento extortionist is up to! Of course, everyone is well aware of the repetitious spikes in gasoline prices. And, Brown’s well publicized action that is supposed to alleviate the problem by releasing winter-grade formula early. If your eyes are open, you’ll see that this action is the same as trying to extinguish a forest fire with nothing more than a squirt gun! When you look closely at the situation, you realize that with high gas prices, Sacramento gets a windfall of sales taxes! Is it any wonder why it took so long for any action by Sacramento. And, the problem continues to prevail. Because gas prices will only come down in very slow increments, continuing the windfall in sales taxes.

I am voting “no” on Prop. 30, and I sincerely hope that the majority of Californians do the same. Brown’s Prop. 30 is nothing more than extortion! Give him his taxes or he will do more politically motivated financial damage to state programs, especially education. I can remember when he took office in his first term. He installed one of his cronies as the superintendent of public instruction. Up to this point, California was leading the nation in education, substantiated by high scores by students. But, this so-called genius changed the education program statewide. New Math was his most publicized innovation. This is when California began its plunge in ranking and test scores.

I was hired by Kelly Services in Sacramento to grade elementary school end-of-the-year tests in mathematics. The instructions I received were simple, “It doesn’t matter if the student gets the correct answer, just so long as they get the concept.” I quit that job immediately. I will not support fraud in any way!

Besides, there’s always high-speed rail, the train that goes from nowhere to oblivion. But that’s OK, as long as Brown gets a plaque with his name on it, at taxpayer expense. Why do we need a high-speed train through fertile agricultural property, that parallels the San Andreas Fault?

Proposition 34

Families who suffer the loss of a spouse, a child, a parent, etc., deserve maximum justice; the execution of the perpetrator. Prop. 34 appears to deprive them of that right, but the truth on issues so emotional and complex is not easy to come by.

Many such survivors do insist on the death penalty. But there are over 500 victims’ families in California, many in San Diego, who feel very differently. They report that killing the murderer would give them no solace, wouldn’t replace their loss, and would do nothing to relieve their pain.

Scores of these folks are out actively supporting Proposition 34, which replaces the death penalty with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Legislators in New Jersey, which replaced its death penalty in 2011, conceded that the poignant testimony of victims’ families was more convincing than any other factor in the deliberations leading to their decision.

The “life without parole” option provides justice for victims’ families and for all Californians. The murderers will no longer be a threat to the community. – Duane Anderson, San Diego

Electoral College folly

The editorial “Nine states matter, and California isn’t one” (Oct. 14) is

spot on! The founding fathers certainly intended Electoral College voting to reflect congressional/Senate districts as is already done in several states. Plus, some others, the smaller-population states, with only one or two congressional districts are also effectively allocating by congressional districts. The current winner take all policy is clearly voter disenfranchisement in large states such as California. The policy should be consistent in all states and should be corrected at the national level with a constitutional amendment if necessary. However, since it is currently up to the states to decide and our liberal Legislature won’t act, Californians should put the issue to a vote via the initiative process before the 2016 elections. – Joe Saline, Bonsall